Smiley: Revelry goes online

Smiley: Revelry goes online

The Spanish Town Mardi Gras Parade, Baton Rouge’s largest and most irreverent Carnival parade, is going to be streamed online by The Advocate. (Go to theadvocate.com at noon Saturday.)

Pam Bordelon and Farren Davis will offer comments on the proceedings from a vantage point on Spanish Town Road.

You can get information about your krewe and photos posted by emailing newsonline@theadvocate.com.

So, if you can’t go to the parade because you’re incarcerated or something, you can check out the revelry from the comfort of your own home (or cell, whatever).

From past experience as a float judge, my only concern involves sending out to the world some of the messages and images on the floats.

I assume Pam and Farren will alert you when floats rated R or X or even XXX pass by, so you may avert your eyes. …

Not quite eternal

Fred Huber, of Hammond, says the fad of putting padlocks on bridges and throwing away the key to symbolize eternal love is popular not only in Paris, as we said in the Thursday column, but all over Europe.

He was perusing a photo of the Greek Bridge in Frankfurt when he noticed a combination lock among the padlocks:

“I had to laugh. Maybe some love isn’t quite so eternal as I thought.”

Full of it

Roy Chustz says after dinner at the Hawk’s Nest with friends Billy and Clare Couvillion, “We were joined by the proprietor, Ray Smith, in a very humorous discussion of events, places and characters of old Baton Rouge.

“Ray told us this one:

‘It seems that someone got the bright idea to fill Memorial Stadium with water and hold a water-skiing contest.’

“I have a vague memory of this and was not sure it happened. But Ray said he attended both days (or nights).

“Smiley, maybe you or your readers could shed more light on this event (I think it was in the ’60s).”

Rocking the swamp

“Swamp pop music and Mardi Gras go together like rice and gravy,” says Alex Chapman, of Ville Platte.

He says several community organizations in Ville Platte are sponsoring a “Mardi Gras Eve Swamp Pop Reunion” at 6 p.m. Monday, March 3, at the Northside Civic Center.

“Many legends will appear and play,” he says.

All that and gumbo, too. …

Remember Walker?

James Fox-Smith says part of the Walker Percy Literary Festival on June 6-8 in St. Francisville will be an oral history project titled “I Knew Walker When.”

“The T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History at LSU will supply a recording booth and technical expertise, enabling festivalgoers to record anecdotes of what Walker Percy’s writing means to them,” Fox-Smith said.

“Since Percy only died in 1990, we keep running into people who knew him personally and have wonderful anecdotes to relate.

“So we hit upon the idea of recording a series of interviews in advance that could then be put online and used to publicize the oral history project and the festival as a whole.

“We hope to conduct the interviews at LSU in late March, early April. If readers have a story and would like to be considered for an interview, they could send an email to info@walkerpercyweekend.org with ‘I Knew Walker When’ in the subject line, a brief description of their story and contact details.”

Looking for stuff

Carole Cross says for Theatre Baton Rouge’s next production, “Young Frankenstein,” running from March 14 to March 30, “We need to borrow the following old-looking musical instruments that WILL NOT be played: violin, concertina and French horn.”

Call (225) 924-6496.

Drop those books

Pat Hoth reminds us the Book Barn (on River Road just north of the LSU campus) will accept no more books after Friday, Feb. 28.

From now until the Book Bazaar on March 20-22, Friends of the LSU Libraries will be getting the books ready for your perusal and purchase.

Special People Dept.

Hilda Husband, formerly of Morgan City, now living in Conroe, Texas, celebrates her 103rd birthday on Saturday, March 1.